


Home

by Notquiteright



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: -Ish, After like two seconds, Also I tagged camileda too bc it's lurking there, But there is a healthy serving of it, Chapter 6 is a bonus one-shot of Camilia's first day on the Isles, Everyone in the Boiling Isles is like "nope that's not working", F/F, Families of Choice, Gen, Lumity isn't the focus, Luz goes home, POV Alternating, Post-Canon, The story ends with chapter 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notquiteright/pseuds/Notquiteright
Summary: "Camilia Noceda isn’t stupid. She knows that wherever her daughter was during the summer it definitely wasn’t Reality Check. She is also not blind and can plainly see that 1) all of Luz’s friends from “camp” have pointy ears 2) Ms. Clawthorne wears mismatched clothes twice her size and her “dog” actually talks 3) the brochure for their so-called school looks like it’s been scavenged from a kindergarten 4) all of them are absolutely flabbergasted by most human things 5) and less relevantly but very noticeably:theAmity Blight blushes an impressive shade of scarlet around Luz."The summer ends and Luz has to go back to the human realm. Too bad the Boiling Isles wants her back
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne/Camilia Noceda
Comments: 398
Kudos: 2294





	1. Eda

**Author's Note:**

> I've only started binging The Owl House recently and I'm already so in love with it??? The humor. The characters. The world-building. Lumity. All of it is just *chef's kiss*. So I simply had to get this out of my system. 
> 
> p.s. Gabrielle Aplin's Home? That's totally the soundtrack of the whole fic.

They all knew it was coming of course. The end of the summer bringing with it the end of Luz’s adventures in the Boiling Isles. It always seemed so far away, a string of “tomorrow she’ll be here and the next day too and the day after…” but then the day after the day after the day after she suddenly _isn’t_. One moment Luz is excitably telling Eda about the latest mischief she’s caused at Hexside ( _that’s her girl always getting into trouble,_ Eda thinks proudly) and the next she’s smiling wide as she hugs them, her voice barely wobbling as she promises she’ll come back to visit whenever she can. 

Which is fine. Of course it is. Eda has lived most of her life without a strange human girl underneath her roof, truly how hard can it be to get used to it again?

The answer, as it turns out, is very, very hard. 

“It’s just so quiet here!” she tells King, annoyed beyond measure at the way she can hear each and every footfall echo in the Owl House. It’s unnatural this silence. King slams the door behind him and there’s an offended yelp from the other side.

“What are you talking about?” he grumbles. “Hooty has been screeching at me all day! I’m running out of places to hide.”

“Well to be fair he _is_ the house…” Eda says before shaking her head. “Anyway, not the point. The point is how quiet everything is! I can’t take it.”

“Yeah it is strange that Luz hasn’t run inside screaming for help yet.” King agrees. That. That is what she is missing. The excitement, the rush, the constant activity surrounding that girl. She’s been gone _a day_. Eda didn’t think she’d be that weak. Sensing an opportunity – to make fun of her probably, he has excellent senses for that – King’s eyes light up.

“You miss Luz!” he points an accusing finger at her. “I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t last long! Ha! I won again.” Eda has half a mind to deny it out of reflex but…

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you sleeping on her bed King.” King’s victory dance stops abruptly. His eyes narrow.

“It’s comfortable.” he argues. Eda crosses her arms over her chest.

“It’s on the floor.” she points out. King slumps.

“Fine. We’re both miserable. Happy?”

“It’s been established that I’m not.” but what can they do really? The summer camp alibi only lasts so long and it’s not like they can offer Hexside as a viable alternative to whatever human school the poor child is forced to attend… or can they?

“King. I have an idea.” she declares. The demon perks up instantly.

“Is it devious? Tell me it’s devious.”

“Oh yes, the most devious idea of all. We’re going to trick the humans into giving us Luz back.”

“Yes! I’ve always wanted to lie remorselessly without consequences!” King pumps the air excitedly. “But wait, how are we going to do that exactly?” Eda’s lips quirk into a smile.

“Leave that to me.”

***

Eda and King find the Noceda household without any difficulties. Well, they knocked or rang the bell at twelve different houses and people screamed at them from three of those, five tried to steal King and the remaining four slammed the door on their faces. Not all of these were even located in the same town. But saying “they found it without any difficulties” sounds better which is the only reason why they’re going with this version if Luz asks.

“Now remember we must act like humans.” Eda reminds King as she knocks on another door. It opens and thankfully they are finally at the right place, because the face beaming up at them in the doorway is none other than Luz Noceda herself. 

“Eda! King!” she launches herself at them. Eda doesn’t even mind at this point. 

“Hey kid.” she says affectionately. Luz steps back and takes in her human disguise with incredulity. Yes, she knows how well she blends in, it’s awe-inspiring. 

“Uh, so what brings you here?” Luz asks at the same time as a voice calls out from inside the house:

“Luz? Who’s that?”

“No one!” she shouts back, then turns back to Eda and lowers her voice. “Seriously what are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you of course I am! Just, surprised is all!”

“We’re bringing you back to the Boiling Isles!” King announces gleefully. Luz looks between the two of them uncertainly.

“That would be great but how are you planning on doing that if I may ask?” she asks with an edge of nervousness as she keeps flicking glances backwards. 

“I have it all figured out don’t you worry.” Eda smiles widely with a shooing motion towards Luz. The girl moves away to let them in though her worry doesn’t seem to diminish. A woman who must be Luz’s mother eyes them uncertainly from the sofa as they all file into the living room. Eda thinks that’s her cue to introduce herself.

“Luz’s mother. I am Eda Clawthorne, Luz’s teacher from the… summer camp.”

“Camilia Noceda. Her mother.” the woman turns to Luz with a bewildered expression. Luz plasters on a wide smile.

“Yes mum this is Eda she taught me a lot at Reality Check. And this is her dog. King. You know dogs. Dogs that definitely can’t talk.” she says pointedly with an awkward little laugh. 

“What? I’m not a dog I’m a…” the demon starts to protest instantly until Luz stares at him pleadingly. King scowls but plays along. “Fine. I am a dog. Whatever that is.”

“I see.” Camilia says very slowly. Eda takes it as a chance to press on.

“You see we were very impressed with Luz and would love if she could study at our very special school.”

“The camp had a school too?” Camilia glances to Luz, more than a little suspicious.

“Pshaw yes of course!” Luz says not too convincingly. Eda winks at her encouragingly anyway.

“So what do you say?” Eda smiles her most charming smile at Camilia, the one that almost-works even against wardens (or it would if they weren’t so dedicated to the law). King himself uses his adorableness to his advantage by giving Luz’s mother his best puppy dog look. Luz awws.

“I admit it sounds… promising.” Camilia gives in hesitantly “This camp really did Luz a world of good. Do you have a website or a brochure I could check out?”

Eda says “a what” at the same time as King cries out “of course we do!”. King is – predictably – louder. 

“I mean yes, we do, we have that.” Eda corrects, nodding very quickly, glancing at Luz from the corner of her eye for help. “We’ll uh, bring those around tomorrow. Yes.”

This plan needs some fine-tuning but it’s working out great so far in Eda’s opinion. 


	2. Willow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long-ish author's note ahead:  
> 1) I am actually kinda blown by the positive reception the first chapter got? I did NOT expect that. You guys are all so sweet <3  
> 2) confession time: I am forever confused about the way Luz's mom's name is spelled. I've seen Camilla, Camila and Camilia around a lot and I only picked the last one because that's the one I ran into most (plus the ao3 tag uses that too). If my totally "scientific" selection methods picked the wrong one eh... sorry? Please substitute it mentally with whichever variety you prefer :D  
> 3) I might have taken some liberties with how much the Isles residents know about human stuff (it's really hard to get a good idea of it based on canon because they basically have instagram but they can't tell the difference between a rock and a cell phone so... the lines are blurry) but I wanted a chapter where they get to explore the human realm a bit.  
> 4) Agony of a Witch was agony. That's it, that's all I wanted to say.

Willow and Gus find themselves at the Owl House and only once they have arrived do they realize that Luz is actually no longer there. 

“Oh.” they exchange a somber glance. That’s right. Luz has returned to the human realm. 

“You were about to whisk Luz off on an adventure, weren’t you? Hoot, hoot.” Hooty asks. 

“Yeah.” Gus admits sheepishly. Hooty nods sagely, well as much as he can considering that he is an owl-head that is currently attached to the door.

“Eda and King are all in a tizzy too. They went to visit her and now they’re running all around the place.” he tells them with an eyeroll. Willow’s eyes widen in shock.

“They visited Luz in the human realm?”

“Yes they- hey wait!” Hooty shouts when instead of letting him finish Willow and Gus sprint inside the house, only to find King standing on the table, proudly brandishing a piece of paper.

“Behold my masterpiece!” he cries just as Eda snatches the paper from him and skims through it, mumbling to herself as she does. Once she finishes she nods approvingly. 

“This’ll do.”

“What’s going on?” Willow asks when it becomes clear that they wouldn’t be noticed in the near future. Eda glances up.

“Ah Luz’s friends hello!”

“Did you truly visit Luz in the human realm?” Gus stares at them hopefully. “Can we come too?” Eda smirks and waves the piece of paper.

“Visited? Better yet, we’re getting Luz back.”

“Getting her back?” Willow takes the paper curiously and begins to read. It’s the address of Hexside, with a vaguely-worded description of the classes there and illustrations drawn with colored pencils. “This doesn’t look… very official.”

“Meh.” King waves off her concern. “The human will be so amazed by my masterful art that she will fail to see the deception. Until it’s too late!” he cackles manically.

“But can we come?” Gus insists. “I always wanted to see the human realm up close.” Willow isn’t sure whether it’s the trick of light or there are actual stars in his eyes. 

“I mean… I don’t see why not.” Eda muses aloud. “Happy students might just convince Luz’s mom to give us a chance.”

“Yes! Willow we’re going to the human realm, can you believe it?” Gus’s enthusiasm is in stark contrast with the worry Willow feels. Sure she would love to see the human realm but is it truly the best idea for them to appear out of the blue like that? Because, well, witches at least know about humans even though they’ve rarely had occasion to meet one before Luz. But to the best of her knowledge humans don’t even believe they exist? What if they find out? What if…

She looks at Gus again, smiling so wide Willow isn’t sure how his cheeks don’t hurt and thinks about getting to see Luz.

_It’s going to be fine,_ she convinces herself. _Hopefully._

***

Luz is absolutely delighted at seeing them. She hugs them both tightly and ushers them in, introducing the both of them to her mom, before leaving her with Eda so the Owl Lady could do her whole _convincing_. As Luz is showing them around the house Gus can’t stop staring at the strange objects lying around gaping and pointing every two seconds and asking Luz a ton of questions. Willow on the other hand tries to pretend she is an average human who totally knows what all of these things are in case Luz’s mom is about to stumble upon them. She isn’t sure how much she succeeds because once the magic rectangle changes pictures as she sits down on the sofa she jumps two meters in the air. 

“What just happened?” Gus asks, alarmed. Luz laughs lightly, picking up another strange rectangle from the cushions.

“Willow accidentally sat on the remote. We use it to change the channel. Look.” Luz points the “remote”-thing at the magic rectangle and suddenly the picture changes again to a woman crying dramatically. Gus and Willow both draw closer. 

“That’s… so awesome.” Gus breathes, eyes filled with wonder. Willow nods mutely, watching as the woman dabs at her eyes.

“Is she okay? The lady trapped in the box?”

“What?” Luz frowns then grins in understanding. “Oh yeah! She’s just an actress. This whole thing is pre-recorded she’s totally fine.”

“Fascinating.” Gus murmurs. Willow watches him from the corner of her eye and suspects that he might try to bring the TV back to the Boiling Isles when they’re not looking. 

“Your mother is reading through our brochure.” Eda enters, smiling smugly. “King has run off to chase after a demon that apparently has the tendency to sneak into your garden. I thought there was no such thing here?”

“A demon…” Luz murmurs, puzzled. “Demon! Of course! He’s the neighbor’s dog!”

“Your neighbor’s dog is a demon?” Willow asks. Luz shakes her head.

“No, it’s just his name because he’s a troublemaker. Come on we should go check on King.”

King ends up being fine, from what Willow can tell. There is a round, pudgy creature that slobbers all over him while the demon is trying to order him into obedience with his alarmed squeaks.

“Luz! Luz! What manner of demon is this?” he cries as the dog yips and jumps around him excitedly.

“A very cuddly one. Demon, c’mere” Luz kneels and the dog bolts into her arms. “There’s a good boy, yes, you like that don’t you.” she rubs his belly as she lifts him from the ground. Luz smiles up at them. “Come on, he doesn’t bite.” 

Willow takes a cautious step towards the harmless-looking-but-you-never-know beast and hesitantly pets him. The dog doesn’t spawn another head or try to bite her fingers off and is instead surprisingly soft: Willow decides that dogs are one of the few things that belong in the “looks cute and is cute” category. 

“Aw, how adorable.” Gus agrees as Luz gently lowers Demon down on the other side of the fence.

“I will have my revenge yet!” King promises as he tries to get rid of the drool on his fur. 

“Sure you will.” Eda laughs as the demon marches away huffily. Luz’s mom clears her throat.

“The food is ready. Would your friends like to stay for dinner Luz?” Luz beams at them and unsubtly gives them a thumbs up so they say yes.

Although they barely know what half the things they put into their mouths actually are the food tastes good. King is also seated at the table despite the fact that he is supposedly pretending to be a pet. Luz’s mom gives them odd looks at that but doesn’t comment on it.

“So mom, what did you think about Eda’s offer?” Luz brings up after a few minutes of – relative – silence. Camilia seems to consider her words carefully.

“I found the brochure… very informative.” she says diplomatically. Willow is certain that if his mouth wasn’t full of baked goods he pilfered from the cupboard King would boast at his success. Eda herself has no problems with smirking. But then to Willow’s alarm Luz’s mother turns to her and Gus.

“So you both go to Hexside right? What is it that you study precisely? The class descriptions were… vague.” 

“I uh, well I study plants?” Willow fumbles for an answer. Camilia blinks. 

“Plants?”

“Yes!” Luz cuts in rather loudly. “Like gardening!” Willow nods hastily trying not to let the skeptical expression on Camilia’s face get to her.

“Gardening.” the woman repeats. Luz flashes her a grin. She sighs. “Alright. I suppose that is a useful skill to have. What about you?”

“Me?” Gus panics, eyes flitting to every person at the table for help. What kind of human classes are there? Willow wishes she could help out.

“Gus also studies gardening!” Luz says quickly. “And Eda teaches gardening. We are all fans of gardening right guys?”

There is a chorus of sure, yes, totally-s all around. Camilia stares Luz down whose smile falters but she doesn’t look away. Finally, the woman shakes her head but thankfully drops the subject.

Willow exhales in obvious relief. That was a close one.

***

Luz’s mom agrees to think on Eda’s offer. Neither of them knows how long this thinking process is supposed to take so they all appear at the Noceda household the very next day. Camilia doesn’t even look surprised at this point, letting them in with an amused curl of her lips. 

“Luz! Your friends are here!” she calls out and Luz runs down the stairs, taking two at a time. She is just as happy to see them as she was yesterday although there’s a brief flash of disappointment that makes her smile waver just a touch as they all enter. It’s gone so quickly Willow isn’t sure whether it was actually there in the first place. 

Gus takes out his notepad as soon as they are inside, pen poised and ready to take notes. 

“Gus what are you doing?” Willow asks quietly, hoping Luz’s mother won’t hear. 

“I’m taking notes!”

“But why?”

“To make sure I remember every detail about the human realm correctly!”

“What are you two whispering about?” Eda walks up behind them. They both startle like they were caught doing something wrong before Gus straightens proudly.

“Documenting this for posterity.” he answers solemnly. Willow shakes her head fondly right as Luz joins them.

“Okay so.” there’s a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “Mom and I were about to go shopping anyway so how would you feel about a trip to the mall?”

“I’m. So. In.” Gus lights up. King looks less enthusiastic. 

“Ah, but I wanted to establish my dominance over the local demon!” he complains. Luz smiles at him.

“There’s always tomorrow?” that seems to appease the demon. Eda claps her hands together. 

“Well, I needed a resupply anyway.” she says. Luz’s smile strains.

“Please don’t steal anything.”

“Nooo promises.” Eda replies, unrepentant. 

Willow doesn’t want to bring everyone down but…

“Guys... are we sure this is a good idea? I mean fooling Luz’s mother is one thing but going out into a human town –”

“ _A human town._ ” Gus echoes and that’s the exact opposite of what Willow is trying to say here!

“It’s going to be fine Willow.” Luz reassures her, putting her hands on Willow’s shoulders. “Just follow my lead. What could go wrong?” 

In the end they all pile into a car (which they all but gawk at). Gus is furiously jotting down his observations which turns out to be a very difficult task once they actually reach the mall.

Willow tries to take in the whole thing, wide-eyed. There are just so many humans in here! Is this how Luz felt when she arrived at the Boiling Isles? It’s like a funhouse mirror, where everything is distorted yet still familiar, like that girl posing in front of the fountain that reminds her so much of Boscha save for the fact that she has two-eyes and round ears. 

“Okay mija.” Camilia hands Luz some money. “I am going to the grocery store. Be careful with your friends and don’t buy the whole place alright? Love you!”

Willow and Gus follow Luz around while Eda and King… well they simply disappear at some point. Willow doesn’t know when that happened and she most definitely doesn’t want to know what they are currently doing.

Deciding which stores to visit is difficult, since Gus and Willow are interested in _all of them_ but they eventually wander into a souvenir shop because Luz finds the idea funny. 

“We can’t not do this. You are technically tourists which means it is your duty to buy over-priced postcards and magnets!”

They browse the wares and goof around, over-dramatically acting like they are from a faraway place (which in Willow and Gus’ case is true, just not in the way the shopkeeper who groans loudly at their antics might assume), Luz even adding – purposefully horrid – accents and miming taking pictures. 

When Luz’s mother returns all three of them show off their truly very expensive purchases. Camilia shakes her head but her mouth is twitching at Luz’s infectious joy. 

Of course that is the moment an alarm goes off which is _coincidentally_ followed by Eda sprinting towards them, oddly gleaming trinkets spilling from her hair, King hot on her heels.

(Later, she looks incredibly pleased at the prospect of being banned from a place in the human realm too.)

***

The next time they manage to visit comes two-days later and this time Willow is certain she isn’t imagining the disappointment in Luz’s gaze as she takes in who is walking through her door. Or rather who _isn’t_. So Willow suspects this question is coming yet she is still very unprepared when it actually does.

“So…” Luz starts when it’s just the two of them sitting idly on the grass in the Nocedas’ garden. “Have you heard anything about Amity?” her tone is too nonchalant for it to actually _be_ nonchalant. 

Willow isn’t sure what the right answer here is.

“We haven’t talked since you left no.” apparently that most certainly _wasn’t_ the right answer since Luz seems to deflate. 

“Oh. Yeah. It’s fine. I was just curious.”

Truth be told so is Willow. Where is Amity Blight? The witch has definitely made herself scarce since Luz left. It’s not like Amity is avoiding them outright, Willow thinks she’d have noticed if that was the case, Amity isn’t the subtlest person around. But lately she rarely ever sees her, even in passing.

“I’m sure she’d love to visit if she knew we were coming here.” Willow says comfortingly. “Besides if everything goes according to plan you’ll be back in Hexside before you know it.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Luz sighs. “I just wish… Well, never mind that.” she stands up and dusts off her pants, turning to Willow. “Come on, I’m sure dinner will be ready soon.”

Willow follows her, making up her mind. She isn’t going to press the issue, not now.

But tomorrow she is going to find Amity Blight even if she has to look under every rock on the entire Boiling Isles. 


	3. Amity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember the tags saying there is a "healthy serving of lumity"? This. I meant this. 80% of this chapter is pining Amity and the remaing 20 is Edric and Emira having way too much fun acting like they have jumped out from an infomercial. 
> 
> Also re:the Spanish thing. Thanks to some lovely suggestions I will try my best to incorporate the fact that Luz and her mom speak Spanish into the fic. Unfortunately, since I don't actually speak Spanish anything that would be in Spanish is instead bolded in the text. Hope it's not too distracting, I tried :D 
> 
> Also yes I called "it's free real estate" on the Good Witch Azura books because reasons.

No matter what anyone says Amity isn’t sulking. Or hiding. The only reason she is sitting in her library hide-out, re-reading The Good Witch Azura series is because the sixth book is coming out next month ( ~~she wonders when it will come out in the human realm~~ ). Amity shakes her head and focuses her attention on the pages. 

_Unbeknownst to Azura, a conflicted gaze watched her leave. Hecate almost took a step forward to stop her but clenched her fist and turned away instead, haunted by the what-ifs and maybes against her better judgement._

Amity sighs as she closes the book. She always did hate the ending of Book 3, the way any potential alliance between Azura and Hecate is mercilessly thrown out the window when Hecate chooses not to follow her at The Fork In the Road. Now somehow she hates it even more, because it hits a little too close to home and no she didn’t want to think about that because _no_. 

Amity doesn’t want to remember the way she spent the last few weeks mustering up the courage to tell Luz how she feels. 

The time she decided she had to do something about her crush was when Luz assured her how absolutely ready she was for Abominations class only to trip into a cauldron as she was walking backwards. And then Luz poked her head out and laughed, her dorky little laugh and Amity thought: _IlikeyouIlikeyouIlikeyou_ but she didn’t say anything because she might have faced her fear of rejection but she hasn’t overcome it yet.

And Luz would come into the library sometimes to read for the kids alongside her and she’d make all these over-the-top dramatic voices. One time she even jumped on the table to act out a scene and Amity’s heart really shouldn’t have sped up, screaming at her to tell Luz but it did. 

And she tried. She tried to tell her, the words were on the tip of her tongue so often. But then Willow and Gus would arrive, or the bell would ring, or a magical monster would be mysteriously set loose and she never had the chance. 

There was a moment when they were sitting on the roof of the Owl House, where Amity steeled herself. This was it. Just the two of them, underneath the stars, no distraction in sight. She almost opened her mouth to say it finally but then Luz’s phone pinged with a text message:

_What time are you coming home on Friday cariño?_

So Amity swallowed those words down. Because why would she have said anything when Luz would leave in less than week? And who knows when she’ll be back?

_Maybe she won’t even want to come back_ , Amity thinks, forlorn. Then suddenly her door bangs open and she jumps. Her siblings walk inside which is just what she needed. 

“What do you want?” she asks tiredly, putting The Good Witch Azura 3 back in its rightful place.

“This is an intervention.” Edric declares. Emira nods in agreement. 

“You’ve been so down in the past few days Mittens. It’s not even fun to tease you when you’re like this.” Amity doesn’t bother replying to that with anything more than a sigh. Edric and Emira exchange glances.

“That. That is exactly what we meant.” Emira says. 

“This is for your own good Mittens.” Edric tells her but before Amity can question what he means by that he opens the door back up to let in… Willow.

“Willow?” Amity says out loud, surprised and a little embarrassed. She might have been… avoiding Willow. Accidentally on purpose. She hasn’t been avoiding her _specifically_ only… avoiding most people generally? 

“Hi Amity!” Willow doesn’t seem upset at least. That’s a good sign. Edric and Emira leave (though their smirks are impossibly smug) and Amity prepares herself for what’s about to come.

“Look Willow I know what you’re going to say -”

“Do you want to come with us to visit Luz in the human realm?” hold on. Play back. This is admittedly _not_ what Amity expected. 

“What?” not her most eloquent moment but then again not her worst either. Her brain to mouth filter is pretty much broken lately (she would like to plead ignorance on why that is).

“Eda is trying to convince Luz’s mom to let her come back to Hexside. We’re visiting her in the meantime. Do you want to come with? Luz would love to see you.” 

“She would?” _urgh brain?! Stop broadcasting every pathetic thought you have to the world!_ “I mean yeah, I’d like that.” Amity corrects. If Willow sees through her she is kind enough not to call her out on her out of control crush. This, this is exactly why Willow is such a good friend. 

“Great! Then come to the Owl House tomorrow afternoon!” 

“Uh, Willow?” Amity starts sheepishly. But as awkward she feels doing this she has to. She abandoned Willow once and she doesn’t want her to think for a second that she was about to do that again. “I’m sorry for kind of avoiding you. I didn’t mean to do that, I swear.” Willow’s expression softens.

“It’s okay. You needed to be alone. I get that.” she smiles. “Do you still need to be alone?” there is a lingering invitation in her voice. Amity accepts, grateful for her company.

“No. I guess not.”

***

Amity isn’t nervous. Why would Amity be nervous? It’s just Luz. Luz and Luz’s mother. Luz’s mother who doesn’t know anything about the Boiling Isles and magic, and most importantly who is Luz’s _mother._

Okay. So Amity might be nervous. A bit. A bit that escalates into a firm “a lot” when, after knocking, everyone kind of unanimously decides to push her to the front right at the second Luz opens the door.

“Hi everyo – Amity!” she cries happily and before Amity could process what’s happening she has an armful of Luz. 

“Hey Luz.” she forces out, thankful that her voice is even and only a little bit breathless. But that’s because Luz is crushing her lungs. After a moment Amity reminds herself to hug Luz back.

“I’ve got to… moooom.” Luz shouts, grabbing Amity by the hand and dragging her into the house. Amity always seems to forget that Luz is not a person so much as a person-shaped hurricane. She still has to smile at her exuberant antics; Amity missed this, missed _her_. 

“Yes cariño?” Luz’s mother walks in and then hones in on Amity. “And who might you be?”

“Mom, this is Amity Blight. _The_ Amity Blight.” Luz introduces her. Her mother seems to find the whole thing irrationally funny.

“Ah, _the_ Amity.” she repeats, laughter evident in her voice. “I’ve heard quite a bit about you. I’m Camilia Noceda. Call me Camilia.” she offers her hand for Amity to shake.

“Pleased to meet you.” she shakes Camilia’s hand, feeling a bit uncertain as to how to proceed from here. Luz however only beams at her so Amity relaxes. For a moment, because then the hurricane is on the move again. 

“Do you want to see my Good Witch Azura collection?” Luz gives her hand a slight tug and Amity unconsciously steps to follow her. Camilia smiles at them in fond exasperation. 

**“ _Of course_ she likes that book too.”** she mutters in Spanish, with a shake of her head. 

“I heard that!” Luz shoots back, leading Amity up the stairs.

“Luz, Eda says we can go explore! Can we go explore?” Gus appears from around the corner. Luz barely looks back at him as she answers.

“Sure! Have fun!” she shouts back. As they reach the top of the stairs Luz opens the door to her bedroom. Amity takes in the different posters and drawings hanging from the wall, the enormous bookshelf propped up next to the wardrobe with curious wonder. Meanwhile Luz is furiously digging through said wardrobe. 

“There they are!” she pulls out a large box decorated with stars and puts it on her bed before sitting down. Amity takes it as her cue to follow. Luz opens the lid and starts showing off the items one by one.

“These are keychains I ordered online, a hat that I tried to diy but I kind of failed, a hat that I actually bought, my figurine collection, an Azura notebook where I keep my…” Luz trails off midway.

“Your what?” Amity prompts. Luz laughs, a little red in the face. 

“I write Good Witch Azura fanfiction.” Luz admits. “Well, wrote anyway. The notebook is full of them.” Amity reaches for the notebook cautiously, but Luz doesn’t stop her, so she takes it.

“Can I see?”

“Eh, well if you want to?” Luz laughs, still a little nervous. Amity opens the notebook gingerly and is met with Luz’s distinct scrawl and the title, _The Curse of an Uncertain Heart._ “That’s actually the first one I wrote. It’s about uh, Azura’s doomed to be one-sided feelings for Hecate. Book 3 really inspired me.” Luz goes on to explain. 

Amity flips through the pages, marveling at how many of them there are and saying, almost absent-mindedly:

“I don’t think it’s one-sided.”

“Huh?”

“Azura’s feelings for Hecate.” she looks up which is a mistake because Luz is far too close. Why does she always lean in so close when she is paying rapt attention? 

“What do you mean?”

“Book 3 heavily hinted on the fact that it might be mutual. Book 5 was no longer even subtle about it.”

“Ugh now I’m even more excited for Book 6! Imagine if they actually ended up together! It’d be such awesome twist!” Luz switches into Discussing Good Witch Azura mode and Amity smiles, glancing back at the notebook. 

“Yeah. I think it would be.”

***

When night falls and it’s time for all of them to leave Luz appears disappointed. But for only a second.

“Next time you come around we should definitely have a slumber party!” she proposes. Camilia briefly looks up but doesn’t stop her. 

“Yes!” Gus agrees. “I was curious about that since you mentioned it!”

“What’s a … what’s a slumber party?” Amity asks, feeling like she is missing something. 

“It’s like a moonlight conjuring. Only less moonlight and less conjuring.” Luz stops, realizing that’s unhelpful and starts over again. “It’s basically sleeping over at a friend’s house, painting each other’s nails, eating snacks, and gossiping. Or so I’m told. Haven’t been invited to many.” Luz laughs a bit self-consciously. Not letting the slight dip in the mood deter him King jumps up to get their attention. 

“Can I come too? Can I come?” 

“Aww, of course you can. We’re boo-boo buddies after all.” Luz gives him a warm smile. 

“Yes!” 

“Hey!” Eda snaps at him half-heartedly. “So what I’m just supposed go back to the Owl House all alone? Play crossword with Hooty?”

“You could stay here if you want.” Camilia chimes in unexpectedly. “You’ve all but moved in anyway.” though her words are delivered dryly Amity is relieved to detect a hint of humor in them. So she isn’t mad, thankfully.

“Mom…” Luz gives her an apologetic look. Camilia waves her off.

“ **It’s fine.** So. Slumber party tomorrow? We’d better shop for snacks then.” 

***

_“You’re conning Luz’s mother into letting Luz come back?”_

The fact that this is less of a question or even an accusation and more an excited yell is reason number one for why Amity didn’t want to tell the twins. But they’re very quiet when they want to be which is why they managed to sneak up on her as she was packing her bedroll and pajamas. And they have been annoyingly persistent. Amity felt like it was the lesser of two evils that she told them. Now she isn’t so sure.

“Whatever you’re thinking, _no_.” Amity says firmly.

“I’m glad you’ve finally developed a proper rebellious streak but face it Mittens if you want to pull this off you’re going to need our help.” Emira replies. “Who better than us? We are certified troublemakers.”

“That’s actually true.” Edric unrolls a parchment. “We got the paperwork done last week.” Amity _doesn’t even want to know_. 

“We’ll sing the praises of Hexside so effusively the human won’t be able to resist.” Emira bats her eyelashes in faux innocence and begins, dramatically: “Oh Hexside is the best school ever and we are ever so grateful to have studied there!”

“Just. No.” Amity shakes her head. Out of the question.

“Come on Amity.” Edric says, more seriously this time. “Luz is our friend too. We want her back as much as you do.” then, realizing what he has said he corrects with a cheeky smile. “Well, not as much as _you_ do.” and there goes that brief second of sincerity. 

“Clearly.” Emira joins in. “Since unlike Mittens here we were both capable of doing things other than wallowing since Luz left.” Amity flushes furiously and she honestly wishes she knew whether it’s due to anger or embarrassment. “But Ed has a point. We want to help.”

And that’s how both her siblings eventually find their way to Luz’s doorstep. 

“I’m sorry. They insisted.” Amity tells her as soon as the twins move on to their target: Camilia. “And you know how stubborn they can be.” 

“I don’t mind.” Luz smiles wide. “I like them.” at that Amity flicks her dubious gaze at Edric and Emira who are going _all out_ with the theatrics.

“Luz was the best student we have ever had. The principal’s words not ours.” Emira tells Camilia with fake-innocence while Edric nods furiously. 

“And she’s also an excellent Grudgby player! We’d have lost the season without her!”

“I can’t imagine a better fit for her than Hexside! Our school is the most prestigious institution on the Boiling Isles. How many awards have we won Edric?”

“At least five. But that was only this year.” Amity tunes them out, in favor of turning back to Luz.

“If anyone asks I don’t know them.”

“Their acting might be _a little_ over the top.” Luz concedes. Amity thinks that’s the understatement of the year.

***

They take up every inch of space on the floor and even then they barely fit in Luz’s room. But somehow they make it work. Their bedrolls are so closely placed together that anyone who wanted to leave the room without stepping on someone would need the agility of a dancer.

Or a witch’s staff. 

They do eventually settle down, King eagerly shoving his paws at Luz once the nail polish appears. 

“It’s… a very weird ritual to do.” Amity remarks, watching Luz puzzling over which color would fit the demon better. “You could paint your nails any time.” she glances down unconsciously at her own black nails, which case in point she did herself without any ceremony. Moonlight conjuring is a bit more specific at least. 

“It’s all about the bonding experience.” Luz explains before crying out triumphantly. “Aha! This. I think this shade of red would suit you.” King inspects the bottle with great care before declaring that it will do.

Meanwhile Willow enlists Gus to do her nails: he looks a bit daunted by the task but also determined, so Amity leaves them be.

For lack of any other way to participate Amity samples the snacks cautiously, lifting up a piece of chips with suspicion. She doesn’t expect it to sprout legs and run away – although it doesn’t hurt to be cautious with her siblings around – but you never know. It actually doesn’t taste half-bad. Amity hasn’t noticed that Luz was waiting for her reaction until the human turns away with a happy smile. 

Edric and Emira take it upon themselves to do the gossiping part, filling Luz in on everything that has happened since she has been gone. It’s not as much as there would have been if Luz had been on the Isles, Amity is sure of it. Still, Principal Bump getting caught in a spider web was kind of funny. 

“He what?” Luz asks, gaping in disbelief. Edric and Emira burst out laughing. 

“There was a spider infestation in the forest.” Gus explains. “And Principal Bump went out to take care of it, but then he just didn’t come back.”

“He was missing for a whole day.” Willow adds. “The school board was getting a little worried.” 

“So eventually we all went looking for him” Emira continues “only to stumble on him in the forest, stuck there with a spider holding a bouquet of roses.” she snickers, casting a spell and an illusion of Bump appears in the room.

“Stop that! Stop laughing you -” Illusion Bump protests indignantly and Edric joins his sister, conjuring a spider. It’s wearing a bowtie and making kissy noises as it chases Illusion Bump around the room. It’s actually a pretty accurate depiction of the events, Amity has to give them that.

Luz laughs hard at the display and Amity can’t help chuckling either. 

“Wish I could’ve seen that.” Luz says, her laughter morphing into a longing smile. Before they can say anything else they hear a soft knock. The illusions are dispelled just in time for the door open to reveal Camilia Noceda with Eda peeking in over her shoulder.

“Huh. You all actually fit in here. I’m impressed.” Eda hums. Camilia looks about the place.

“Do you have everything? Need more snacks, drinks?”

“We’re good mom. We’re good. **You can leave now.** ” Luz replies, with a faint hint of pink dusting her cheeks. Amity has heard Luz occasionally slip into Spanish before but she doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to how different her voice sounds around those foreign syllables. It’s strange but… nice. Really nice.

“The snacks are divine.” Edric tells Camilia (sounding far too casual) only for Emira to instantly follow it up with:

“The only time I ate something that tasted better was at the Hexside cafeteria.” Amity is a little scared by how in-sync they can sometimes be. Camilia shakes her head with silent laughter.

“Fine. I’ll leave you to it.” she closes the door behind her but they can still hear Eda’s muffled “I told you they’re going to be fine.” from outside. 

Later, so much later that they have all settled down to sleep and many of them have already succumbed to it, Amity notices that Luz is still awake and deep in thought. 

“Are you alright?” she whispers. Fortunately, since Luz has scooted over to the right side of her bed which is quite close to Amity’s bedroll she won’t wake up the others with her shouting. 

“I am! Of course I am!” Luz replies almost instinctively before she thinks better of it. “I just… I really hope mom will let me go back to the Boiling Isles. I missed you all. A lot.” she admits, a little shyly and Amity’s heart does a complicated flip. 

“We missed you too.” then – hoping that the joking lilt of her voice will cover up how much she means that – she says, immediately afterwards: “You know for supposedly not being a witch the Isles is definitely less magical without you.” Luz’s eyes widen comically.

“Did you just make a pun?”

“What?” Amity asks, puzzled. There is a grin that is slowly spreading across Luz’s face.

“You made a pun!”

“I didn’t… that doesn’t count as a pun!” she protests because, truly why would anyone consider that as a pun, but Luz is having none of it.

“Coming from you it counts, it definitely counts. Aww Amity. Now I _know_ you’re going soft on me.” Luz laughs lightly and Amity smiles without meaning to.

_You have no idea. (But if I’m brave enough you will.)_


	4. Camilia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've lost count of how many times I've re-written this chapter. Even after I proclaimed it "done" and started working on chapter 5 I still eventually went back like "nah just a minor edit..." and like changed 67% of it. It's still a much slower and more introspective chapter than the rest; I guess Camilia just had a lot to think about. I hope you'll enjoy anyway <3
> 
> p.s. I saw a few toh comics with otter puns in passing and I honestly don't remember if this pun was used before? Better be on the safe side and say: yep I probably absorbed that into my psyche from somewhere else.

Camilia Noceda isn’t stupid. She knows that wherever her daughter was during the summer it definitely wasn’t Reality Check. She is also not blind and can plainly see that 1) all of Luz’s friends from “camp” have pointy ears 2) Ms. Clawthorne wears mismatched clothes twice her size and her “dog” actually talks 3) the brochure for their so-called school looks like it’s been scavenged from a kindergarten 4) all of them are absolutely flabbergasted by most human things 5) and less relevantly but very noticeably: _the_ Amity Blight blushes an impressive shade of scarlet around Luz. 

But what she can also plainly see is that Luz seems to be perfectly aware of all this, except for the last one. So Camilia keeps her mouth shut and lets them pretend they are subtle. For now.

***

When Luz comes home from “camp” they are both overjoyed. At first. All it takes for the smile to slip right off her daughter’s face is for Camilia to ask how her summer has been. 

“It was great. It was really great.” she replies with a wistful expression. When Camilia presses for details she laughs, the sound ringing falsely in Camilia’s ears and then she closes up entirely.

“Mortgages. Loans. They were _so_ much fun. But also kind of exhausting. I might take a nap.”

And then Camilia watches her daughter march up the stairs, wondering whether she said something wrong. 

When Luz emerges a few hours later she is less guarded. Camilia notices how sometimes she unthinkingly starts off an anecdote, her eyes sparkling only for the excitement in them to eventually dim as she trails off, not quite finishing her sentences. 

For instance, when Luz closes the fridge door, her eyes lingering on an Azura drawing she did years ago, her lips quirking inexplicably she says: 

“Eda had one of my drawings on her fridge for a while. Then it turned out that the pencil I used was…” and then she freezes up, chuckling nervously. “Heh, it was a bad pencil to use.” and then she offers no further explanation.

But even though her stories are half-finished or obviously altered in some way one thing remains consistent: the people she talks about, and the obvious affection she has for them. 

A day passes and there is a knock on her door and in walks Eda Clawthorne and her most-definitely-not-a-dog-because-he-can- _talk_ -and-he-has- _horns_ companion. And then her door keeps opening to admit Luz’s merry band of misfits, people she has only heard about in Luz’s patchwork of stories and Camilia doesn’t know what she expected, but definitely not the absolute strangeness that surrounds them. 

But Luz. Oh Luz. Seeing them puts that beautiful smile back on her face, brighter than ever. So Camilia plays along and pretends there is nothing odd about the owl eying her curiously from her kitchen table.

“Hello?” Camilia says uncertainly as the bird hops closer, tilting his head like he’s judging her. The fact that she has seen an alarmingly similarly shaped bird on Eda’s staff doesn’t escape her notice, although she wishes it would. 

“I should have known you were wandering off when I wasn’t looking.” Eda remarks as she enters the kitchen and Camilia can see the light disapproval in her gaze, directed at the bird who doesn’t look fazed at all. “You’re so lucky you're cute.” Eda shakes her head, turning to Camilia “I swear Luz has Owlbert wrapped around her little finger.”

Camilia reaches out cautiously, petting the owl on the head. Owlbert lets out a pleased little chirruping noise and Camilia is surprised to find that she’s smiling.

“You all really love her don’t you?” she asks, thinking about the veritable crowd huddled together in Luz’s room upstairs. Eda mulls it over for a moment before answering, easy as breathing:

“I think Luz changed all our lives for the better just by being in it.” 

***

Camilia has always been worried that Luz would never fit in.

In kindergarten, she befriended a girl named Stacey. Stacey was a nice girl, although very quiet. She enjoyed books and reading which is what brought them together, but would always flinch at how loud Luz could be. When Luz would dress up as a witch, excitably running around with a broom between her legs Stacey would wring her hands nervously, flicking her gaze around almost as if she was searching for an escape.

It was a friendship born of proximity and shared circumstance and it quickly fizzled out when the two girls were sent to different schools. Camilia hasn’t heard from Stacey since.

And then at prom, when Camilia had to pick Luz up because she had decided to wear an otter costume of all things she saw firsthand how some of the girls stared at her.

“You look ridiculous.” Danielle said. Danielle, who was around their house just two days ago, working on an art project with Luz. Her daughter only waggled her eyebrows in response, retorting:

“Don’t you mean I look otter-ly fabulous?”

The few friends she had would come and go, never sticking around for too long. And while Luz might not have acted like it bothered her Camilia wanted better for her girl; so she tried to help her in the only way she could. 

She sent Luz to Reality Check camp to help her see how others look at the world, so she would understand and maybe finally she wouldn’t be so alone, cooped up in a fairytale tower she invented in her own mind.

And then along come these truly, _truly_ eccentric people. These people who didn’t let go carelessly once the circumstances changed but held on fast. And Camilia realizes that wanting the best for somebody else doesn’t necessarily mean you always know what that actually is. Luz didn’t need Reality Check: she needed _them_.

They are all lying to her and make no mistake Camilia knows that. But there are things they can’t lie about. Things that are bright and real and are just as clear to see as the holes in their stories are.

The adoration leaking from Eda’s eyes as she ruffles Luz’s hair proudly when she hears about the snake incident. And it makes something inside Camilia ache with the familiarity of it because it’s an expression she has seen in the mirror often enough. 

Or the way King lay sleeping, curled at Luz’s feet when Camilia gave in to her curiosity and opened the door to her daughter’s room just a crack during their sleepover. He does that a lot, Camilia notes, orienting himself closer to Luz, like the only way to make sure she’s still there when he wakes up is if he falls asleep on top of her.

Or how Willow and Gus go along with Luz’s schemes, not begrudgingly, but _enthusiastically_. And sometimes she almost expects them to pull away, like many others did, like Stacey did. But each time they simply laugh alongside her and Camilia gets the feeling they would walk through fire for her if she only asked.

Or how just this morning Amity stared at Luz like she hung the moon even though she literally did nothing more than loudly complain about having to clean up after their slumber party in Spanish (and oh, does Camilia know that expression too. She hopes they’ll figure it out, because when Amity’s not looking Luz watches her with the same lovestruck look in her eyes.)

Or even how Edric and Emira waltzed in yesterday, determined to dazzle her with Hexside’s charms; and how they kept throwing in such remarks in _every_ conversation Camilia was involved in while they were here. Despite the fact that they were obviously having a blast doing it, Camilia knows why they did it, that it was their own way of trying to get Luz back. 

They might lie about so many things but these are all real. The love they have for Luz is real and they all love her for exactly who she is.

Luz didn’t simply make friends: she made a _family_. It’s unconventional and it’s not what Camilia would have expected but it’s all she could ask for really.

As much as she feels like she doesn’t understand her daughter she wants Luz to be happy. And if going away to a weird boarding school with equally weird people will make her happy then so be it.

***

“Luz.” Camilia knocks on her door gently before letting herself in. Luz is still tidying up, putting her pillows back where they belong but she stops as soon as Camilia sits down on the bed next to her. Her face is wary, like she senses from that single syllable that it’s going to be a serious conversation. 

“Yes Mom?” Camilia doesn’t beat around the bush. 

“Answer me honestly. Do you truly want to go to that school?” Luz’s whole face transforms from suspicion to bright hope. 

“I do. I really do.” she admits. Camilia sighs and opens her arms.

“Come here.” she says and Luz does, flailing awkwardly as she accepts her embrace. “ **I only ever wanted what’s best for you mija.** I never meant to make you feel like you aren’t perfect, just the way you are. If you want to go to Hexside, I’m not stopping you.” Camilia leans down to kiss Luz’s hair. “But you better visit often you hear me?”

“I will Mom. I’ll visit so much you’ll grow sick of me.” Luz promises, voice thick with emotion. “I love it there.” she admits, growing quieter. 

“I gathered that.” Camilia laughs lightly. “ **I love you Luz.** ” she says softly. Luz grins up at her, though her eyes are shining.

“I gathered that.” she echoes with a hint of teasing. “ **I love you too Mom.** ” there is the softest inhale, suggesting that Luz wants to say more but isn’t sure whether she should. Camila gives her a wry smile.

“I’m not blind. I know there’s something going on. I’m not going to push.” she says quickly when she feels Luz grow stiff in her arms. “But whenever you’re ready, I’m here alright?” Luz lets go of her and puts a bit of distance between them, obviously considering. Then she mumbles something too low for Camilia to hear at first.

“What did you say?” she prompts gently. Luz hesitates before saying, louder than before:

“I’m training to be a witch.” 

Camilia feels absolutely betrayed by the fact that the first crystal clear coherent thought she has, the one that breaks through the haze of shocked question marks in her brain is: “that actually explains a lot.”

“Okay.” she says slowly. Luz blinks at her, surprised. She obviously expected more disbelief, or even outrage. Camilia doesn’t blame her. Before this week she probably would have reacted quite differently. But then again, she has actually met Luz’s friends now; after all the oddities they have thrown at her learning her daughter’s a witch trainee isn’t that big of a stretch. 

“Okay?” Luz echoes. Camilia laughs, shaking her head.

“Luz your friends all have pointy-ears, for supposedly being a dog King talks quite a lot and I’m pretty sure Eda’s staff is actually a living bird.” she lists off, and truly these are just the tip of the iceberg but Luz colors a bit at being caught red-handed like that. 

“So ‘okay’ I believe you but definitely not ‘okay’, case closed.” Camilia continues, her expression growing sterner. “You are going to tell me _in great detail_ how you managed to end up befriending witches instead of going away to Reality Check.” Luz looks kind of like a deer in headlights so – to put her out of her misery – Camilia adds “And then I’m going to call the principal to inform him you’ll be changing schools.”

And that’s how Camilia finds herself sitting on her daughter’s bed, letting Luz weave a fantastical story about thieving owls, a portal and a whole new world. 


	5. Luz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1000+ kudos???? Unbelievable. You guys are literally The Best. *hugs all of you until we pass out ala Luz*
> 
> After the last chapter many of you mentioned wanting to see Camilia on the Boiling Isles. While this chapter is not that (sorry) I was in fact considering doing a bonus one-shot about that; knowing that there is an interest for that definitely motivates me to actually finish writing it. Although that will probably be added as an extra 6th chapter, this is still technically the ending of Home. 
> 
> So thank you for reading and for all the kudos and comments, seriously all of you are just downright amazing <3

There are different kinds of goodbyes. 

There is the kind that is final, or at least they feel like it. The kind that makes your chest ache and your eyes water, because this is a goodbye that won’t be followed by a hello ever again.

There is also the uncertain goodbye, the one where you don’t know what the future holds. It makes you feel unbalanced because you don’t know how you should feel: _should I cry?_ , you wonder, _Is this the last time I’m seeing you? Or should I smile at your retreating back because you’ll turn up on my doorstep tomorrow?_ Leaving the Boiling Isles was like that. As Luz hugged everyone goodbye she tried not to let it show how scared this terrible uncertainty made her.

This goodbye on the other hand. This goodbye is different. 

“Do you need any forged documents from Hexside?” Eda asks as she helps Luz move her bags. Camilia shakes her head, before truly considering the offer.

“I might later on, so I can prove my daughter is _actually_ at a boarding school.” she allows with a sigh. “Although I do hope those documents will look more authentic than the brochure you prepared.” there is a hint of teasing in Camilia’s voice and Eda looks a second away from rolling her eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah be all smug about figuring us out.” 

“You were really obvious.” Camilia points out, all deadpan, like even the implication that someone should be smug about figuring them out is absurd. Then she turns to Luz. “Do you have everything?”

“ **Yes mom.** ” she replies. Camilia hesitates, then she slowly kneels down so she’s at eye-level with Luz.

“And you’re sure? No matter how many documents we try to fake it won’t change the fact that you didn’t actually receive a full human education you know.”

“Well, actually I was wondering whether we could buy a few of my textbooks –”

“That’s not what I meant.” Camilia interrupts her rambling, though not unkindly. Luz swallows. Yes, she knows what she meant. She meant that this choice isn’t something she can take back easily. That Luz has to be 100% certain because once she decides to walk through that portal she irrevocably chooses the Boiling Isles. 

“I know.” 

“And your answer is still the same?” Camilia pushes carefully, not attempting to convince Luz either way, only making sure she is aware of what she is doing.

“Yeah.” Luz looks away, suddenly a bit sheepish. “I hope you’re not too disappointed in me.”

“Disappointed? About you making a decision and seeing it through the end?” Camilia jokes quietly and when Luz still refuses to meet her eyes she turns her head back towards her gently. 

“Hey. Just because you’re not going to be a lawyer doesn’t make me any less proud of you, okay?” she says “I know you’re going to be amazing at whatever you set your mind to. So go and be the best witch the Boiling Isles has ever seen. **Show them how the Nocedas do things, alright?** ” at that Luz hugs her tightly. 

She was so terrified of telling her mother the truth because she had no idea how she would react. Would she be angry at being lied to or – worst of all – would she be simply disappointed in her? That’s what Grometheus exploited, the way she started spiraling further and further away from reason into blind fear, taking the vision of her mother in the worst case scenario and making it come alive. 

But here they are now: her mother knows and while she wasn’t exactly pleased about being lied to she still trusts Luz enough to let her decide her own fate, supporting her all the way. And Luz hasn’t even realized just how much she must have let this fear fester inside her for it to feel like now she can finally breathe again.

When she lets go she notices that Eda has been watching them with the beginnings of a smile. As she opens the portal, Camilia stares at the display of magic with a hint of curiosity as well as apprehension. 

“Are you coming as well?” Eda asks Camilia, who shakes her head with a small laugh. 

“Oh no. I’m going to have my hands full with forms. Principal Hal… didn’t appreciate the fact that I announced Luz’s transfer so close to the beginning of the year.” didn’t appreciate it is one word for it. Luz didn’t hear the infamous phone call but her mother actually winced when Luz asked how it went and she doesn’t want to know what can make Camilia Noceda _wince_.

“Buuut.” Luz butts in “Mom has agreed to visit the first chance she gets! A full weekend, right Mom?”

“I don’t think I could wiggle myself out of that one if I tried.” her smile is exasperated but still fond, so Luz beams, unabashed. 

“Well, good.” Eda says. “Because you still owe me a rematch.”

“A rematch? A rematch of what?” Luz asks her mother, suddenly suspicious. Camilia looks a tad uncomfortable by her scrutiny.

“I was trying to teach Eda how to play Old Maid –”

“A card game? You played a card game with her?! Eda!”

“Don’t worry kid, this isn’t anything like Hexes Hold’em. Although…” Eda’s eyes light up. “I bet I could beat you at that.”

“Judging by the look in my daughter’s eyes I should not take that bet.”

“Fine. I’ll have to win back my pride some other way.” Eda says long-sufferingly then drawls, though her eyes betray sincere sentiment: “It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Camilia replies before kissing Luz’s forehead in goodbye. “Take care mija.”

“You too mom. We’ll talk soon.”

And that is the difference: this isn’t a goodbye so much as a “see you soon.” 

***

“SURPRISE!” a loud chorus of voices greet her back in the Owl House. Luz is startled to see a huge _Welcome back_ banner hanging from the ceiling held up by vines and several other streamers that look like they were thrown up hastily, while the table is littered with delicious looking pastries of all kinds. 

As Luz takes in the scene she realizes that all of her friends are here. And she does mean _all of them_ : even Viney, Jerbo and Barcus made it (and a demon she has never ever seen before but she isn’t about to ruin their gesture by pointing that out). 

“They all insisted on throwing a party.” Eda explains as she closes the portal behind them. 

“We insisted?” Gus asks, puzzled. “You and King were already covered in flour by the time we arrived!”

“Fine, fine but you still invited yourselves.” Eda points a finger at them “Which, come to think of it, sounds _familiar_.”

“Once we heard you were coming back we had to come.” Viney tells Luz, and Jerbo and Barcus both nod in agreement. Owlbert flies off the staff to perch on her shoulder, nuzzling her cheek and this… this is too much. 

“You guys did all this?”

“We all pitched in.” Willow says with a smile. Hooty snakes around the group to look at Luz.

“That’s right! They let me put on the streamers.” he twists his head around, a bit disturbingly. Amity’s eyes twitch at the sound of his voice.

“And I didn’t turn him into firewood.” she mutters under her breath. Hooty’s attention snaps back and – obviously not having learnt from last time – pushes his head to Amity’s.

“We are growing closer I can tell!”

“Don’t. Push your luck.” she pushes Hooty away with barely restrained murder in her eyes and the twins snicker behind her. 

“Come on Luz! Taste the cupcakes and tell Eda mine are obviously superior!” King starts jogging towards her with a tiny cupcake in his tiny paws and Luz swears the world wobbles.

“Stop making everything into a competition King!” Eda scoffs. 

“You’re just saying that because you know you’re going to lose!” King shoots back, which knowing Eda, is probably true. Then the demon looks up at Luz and his voice grows alarmed. “Luz your eyes are doing that shining thing again.” 

“It’s just… no one’s ever done this for me before.” Luz says, aware that she is in fact a bit teary-eyed.

The un-named demon sniffles loudly and while Luz still has no clue how he even got here she thinks he has the right idea when he proclaims that it’s time for a group hug. 

***

“I showed my notes to Principal Bump and he agreed to let the Human Appreciation Society hold a presentation for the whole school!” Gus tells her excitedly. Luz grins.

“Yes! Your flags better be prepared because we’re so cheering you on from the first row.”

“My flags are always prepared.” he tells them solemnly and Willow laughs.

Amity approaches them, a bit red in the face but looking strangely resolute.

“Can I talk to Luz for a second?” she asks. 

“Sure you can. Right Gus?” Willow asks pointedly. Gus nods, although he seems a bit confused by Willow’s insistent tone. 

“Of course.” he replies. As focused as she was on Gus, Luz almost misses how Willow mouths “good luck” to Amity. She doesn’t. She wonders what that is about. 

“What did you want to talk about?” Luz asks once Amity has led her further away. “From the look on your face it seems pretty serious.” 

“Not here. On the rooftop maybe?” and that is an odd request since they have only hung out there once and it didn’t end on a particularly high note the last time. But Luz doesn’t argue, because she can see how nervous Amity is and Owlbert is more than happy to help them up there. 

They sit in silence for a while, Luz content to just sit with her, enjoying Amity’s proximity.

…

In a totally _friendly_ way because she has had that conversation with herself before, she shouldn’t go there. It was hard enough to earn Amity’s friendship and sometimes it still seems surreal that they even reached that point, that they are friends. Luz isn’t about to go ahead and ruin all that because wants more. 

But the problem with deals made with oneself is that it’s so liable to be examined and reexamined again, bargaining until it chips away entirely. With the way her heart flutters when Amity looks at her right now Luz is pretty sure she’s going to slip up and break her promise soon enough.

Suddenly a light flashes in the distance, followed by smoke rising to the sky. A beat later a siren sounds. Luz smiles, both amused and fond.

“Ah. Good old Boiling Isles.” she almost can’t believe that she is here again without the “end of the summer” looming over her. That this time her mother knows everything Luz gets to stay. 

“Yeah.” Amity agrees with a hint of laughter in her voice, but her eyes are still a bit faraway. “When you left I… I was worried you wouldn’t want to come back.” 

“You were?” Luz asks, not able to mask her surprise even if she wanted to. Amity averts her eyes. 

“It’s your home Luz. I guess part of me was afraid you’d rather stay there, with the humans instead of... us.”

Home. Home is an interesting concept. It means something different for everyone. For Luz, home means more than a place or even the people. It’s a feeling. It’s warmth, it’s comfort and most importantly it’s the freedom to be yourself, truly yourself and being accepted for it. _Loved_ for it. 

She loves her mother, she loves her so fiercely and she wishes she were here with her but that doesn’t change the fact that her heart does lie _here_ , on the Boiling Isles.

“I love my mom. I will always love her.” Luz starts, sighing deeply. “But I never really fit in in the human realm. I was always too different.” she admits, then looks Amity straight in the eyes. “This is the first place where I felt like I belonged. This is my home Amity.”

Amity stares back at her, eyes wide before blurting out:

“I like you.” then she blushes to the tips of her ears. For a moment Luz doesn’t understand why she is so embarrassed, they are friends after all, liking the other should be a given.

Then it hits her. Like. _Like_ -like?

“Are you asking me out?” Luz asks and Amity must take her incredulity the wrong way because if anything she turns a shade redder and that’s the shade of red that usually precedes her bolting. 

“Because that would be great! I like you too!” Luz exclaims quickly, barely thinking (or considering the fact that Amity could hardly escape since they are on the rooftop) and now they are both blushing messes because of course that’s the worst response she could have come up with and she actually said it. 

Every romance plot she has ever read or wrote is crying at her total lack of eloquence. This isn’t how she pictured asking Amity out at all if ( ~~when~~ ) her resolve to try being only friends with her broke. She definitely thought she would be smoother than this. Apparently not.

But as Amity’s eyes light up with tentative hope and wonder Luz realizes she hasn’t messed up that badly after all. 

“You… you do?”

“Of course I do. You’re Amity!” Luz says like that explains everything because to her it does: she doesn’t love bits and pieces of her but Amity as a whole, the good and the bad too, every single cell that makes up the girl sitting beside her. 

Amity chuckles and… good. That’s good. That’s familiar. Because it reminds Luz that in the end it’s still them: it’s Luz and Amity, Amity and Luz. Fairytales are lovely, Luz thinks, but sometimes you don’t have a romantic declaration up your sleeve. Sometimes you are far too flustered to even think clearly. Not everything needs to end with dramatic fireworks or kisses in the rain. And that’s okay. Maybe one day they will have all that. Or maybe they won’t. 

Because there is no need to rush, not anymore. Now they have all the time in the world to get it right. They’ll figure things out. Together. 

“I wanted to tell you for a long time but… this isn’t exactly how I pictured doing it.” Amity admits, a bit bashfully. Luz only smiles up at her.

“Neither did I.” in a brief moment of bravery – or insanity – she presses a kiss to Amity’s cheek. Both of them turn incredibly red but Amity smiles, a soft, delicate smile so Luz declares the experiment a success. “I prefer reality to my imagination.” 

Then a thought occurs to her and before she can stop herself she asks:

“Wait. Does this mean you wanted to ask _me_ out for Grom?”

This time Amity throws her head back fully and laughs.

***

When they eventually get back inside the Owl House the others are pretending very hard that they aren’t all looking expectantly at them. Well. Most of them do.

“So…?” Emira prompts. Amity sighs deeply. 

“I told her.”

“And you had no idea right?” Emira turns her inquisitive gaze on Luz who is more than a little confused right now. 

“No?”

“I knew it! Pay up everyone!” there is a groan as Viney reluctantly walks over to Emira and hands her the money and to Luz’s horror, so does the demon she has never met before. 

“No! Not again!” King cries as Eda cackles smugly, holding up a notebook that has _Eda+King One-Sided Wagers_ written on its cover.

“Face it King, I always win my bets.”

“You bet on us?!” Amity asks, disbelieving. 

“Not really.” Edric tells them. “You’re not good betting material. We all pretty much knew you were bound to get together.”

“What we _could_ bet on” Emira continues “is which of you would break first. Or whether Luz was even aware of your frankly obvious crush.”

“It was pretty obvious.” Willow confirms, a bit apologetically. 

“We are happy for you though, right guys?” Gus assures them and everyone murmurs their assent.

“Now that you lovebirds figured things out.” Eda begins, whipping out records from her hair. “There is no better time to try out the music I borrowed from the human realm.”

“I don’t think it counts as borrowing if you don’t intend to return it.” Willow points out quietly. Eda acts like she hasn’t even heard her and puts one of the records on. Despite the fact that it’s a vinyl record it sounds rather pop-y; Luz kind of expected a more old-fashioned hit song. 

Most of her friends find the melody strange at first, obviously hesitant to try and dance along. Unlike Eda, King and – unsurprisingly – Hooty, who throw themselves into it with little to no reservation. Gus takes a moment to listen to the beat before joining in. Emira and Edric share a glance that seems to translate to “why not?” as they follow his example. 

Their movements are a touch disjointed and out of sync but they’re enthusiastic. Luz watches them with a grin as she grabs both Willow and Amity by the hand and drags them to the make-shift dancefloor, thinking there is nowhere else she’d rather be in the whole wide world.

(The rest of the night passes in the same happy blur and Luz goes to sleep with a huge smile lighting up her face.

Tonight she snuggles in under the covers, glad to be back in her room, knowing that tomorrow she will wake to see the rest of her friends and her girlfriend waiting for her.

Tomorrow, a new day begins on the Boiling Isles. 

And Luz can’t wait to face it.)

***

“Oh hi Luz! Who’s your new friend?”

“Not now Hooty!”

Luz sprints inside the Owl House, barely hearing Hooty’s protests as she slams the door behind her and flattens herself against it. She laughs nervously as the shrieks of rage seem to come closer.

“Eda. If someone accidentally woke up a huge two-headed dragon like thing in the forest… how big of a trouble would they be in?”

“I see you’ve met our resident firedrake.” Eda chuckles, putting down her phone (and since when does she have a phone?) “He has a fiery temper but he’ll cool off soon enough. Problem is, once he does he has a nasty habit of suing so we should reason with him before he can take this to court.”

“Reason with him while he’s _breathing fire_?!”

Eda only smiles, grabbing her staff.

“Oh Luz. It’s so good to have you back.”

####  ~~The End~~

#### 

### A New Beginning

### 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Necessary disclaimers:  
> 1) I have never ever played Old Maid in my life. But when I read that the goal of the game is to *pair cards up* I had to use it for Camileda. I had to. Also take a wild guess who Eda is texting on her new phone.  
> 2) Including the lumity confession was an absolute must for me, because after chapter 3 focused so much on Amity trying to muster up her courage to tell Luz, I needed to give her the opportunity to do so ( ~~especially since now they both technically faced their grom fears~~ ). But at the same time at this point I just couldn't imagine them getting together with any semblance of dignity or grace so... messy and kind of awkward love confession it is (they might not have used to word yet but... Luz certainly *thought* it)


	6. Bonus: A normal day on the Boiling Isles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz hopes for just one normal day on the Boiling Isles while her mom is visiting. She should be careful what she wishes for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is! The bonus one-shot I promised. 
> 
> As a warning though while it *is* set in the Home universe and is a sequel to the events it is still a "self-contained" story, so to speak, with its own mini-plot (and also a bit more on the crack-y side of things). Plus, Home is still finished, so if this isn't your cup of tea it's entirely skippable :D
> 
> I was also debating on how to introduce Camilia to the Isles but I felt that, rather than showing her everything, it was more appropriate to thrust her into the middle of the absolute madness that is the Boiling Isles. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy <3

Camilia knows that the small-talk is leading up to something. Janet has that strangely focused glint in her eyes, that betrays far more intent than discussing the weather would merit. And Camilia has a very good idea what it is that she wants; while Janet has been on a sick leave she is still an incorrigible gossip, so Camilia isn’t that surprised she’d find out on her first day back.

“So… how’s your daughter?” Janet asks idly, abandoning her recount of yesterday’s strangely chilly winds halfway. “I heard she went off to some weird far-off boarding school. Hegzide or something like that?”

“She has.” Camilia answers, not particularly keen on offering her co-worker more information than she necessarily has to about Hexside. So she’ll instead offer up information about everything _else_. Hopefully, that’ll deter her. “It’s not a traditional school. They help Luz cultivate her creativity instead of repressing it, which I’m so grateful for. It’s far away but it’s absolutely worth it.”

“Right, but where exa –”

“I do miss her.” Camilia continues, voice loud enough to drown out Janet’s question. “She texts every day and comes around frequently but I still sometimes find myself nearly driving down the road to her school out of habit. With all the work lately this is the first weekend I managed to free up to visit her. I can’t wait for Luz to show me around the place and introduce me to everyone.”

“Right.” Janet says, sounding a tad annoyed by Camilia’s incessant chatter. “She must be looking forward to it then.”

***

When Eda returns home from scavenging a Trashlug with King she is treated to a strange sight. Amity is sitting on the sofa with Luz’s head in her lap, while Willow and Gus are sitting cross-legged on the floor near them, all of them unusually quiet.

“Whose pet died?” Eda asks. 

“No one’s! I hope…” Gus starts then trails off uncertainly, like he is actually considering the question. “We’re just here to give Luz moral support.” 

“For what exactly?” at her question Luz mumbles something. 

“Luz I don’t think anyone understood that.” Amity remarks with a smile. 

“Mom’s coming over this weekend.” Luz says, more articulately. Except Eda is pretty sure she misheard because Luz has been nothing but excited about that, exclaiming daily about new things she discovered that she wants to show to Camilia. 

“I thought you’d be happy about that.”

“I am!” Luz says hastily, untangling herself from Amity so she can sit up. “I’m super happy! Or at least 80% happy, but definitely 20% nervous.” she admits “I just want the Boiling Isles to make a good first impression.”

“Wait. Shouldn’t you guys be at Hexside right now?” King wonders, putting down their bag of scavenged goods. And yeah, that’s a good point. 

“Principal Bump gave us the day off.” Willow explains. “So they can rebuild the school.”

“Rebuild it?” Eda echoes. Gus nods calmly.

“A giant foot trampled the bigger part of the building so he could try out for our cheerleading team.”

“Sullivan sure is dedicated.” Eda notes with a snort. “He did the same thing when I went to Hexside too. Did he manage a backflip this time?”

“He did.” Amity confirms drily. “That was what made the left wing collapse.”

Eda looks back at Luz, understanding why she is suddenly so worried about the Boiling Isles not making a stellar first impression. That and also because Hexside was the number 1 thing she wanted to show off to Camilia.

“Don’t worry kid.” she tells her. “Hexside is used to the occasional destruction. Give it two days and you won’t even notice the toe-shaped holes. But” she pauses, contemplative “if you don’t want trouble you should probably avoid the Goblin.”

“The Goblin’s in town?” Amity asks, stiffening. Luz looks between all of them quickly.

“That sounds bad. That’s the bad news tone.”

“Bad news?” King chimes in. “It’s great news! Eda and I usually go out to watch the mayhem.”

“The Goblin isn’t actually evil.” Willow clarifies before Luz has the chance to panic properly. “They want to help you and they mean well but…”

“They usually go about it in all the wrong ways.” Gus finishes with a shudder. “ _Very_ wrong ways.”

“Think asking them to make sure you don’t fail the test so they burn down the school kind of wrong ways.” Eda says and Luz gulps. 

“Yep, we’re definitely avoiding them.”

***

At the exact second Camilia’s phone dings with a text alert a portal opens right up in her living room. She guesses Eda at least attempted to warn her before poking her head in there from another world. In a suit. She’s wearing a suit. There might be magic going on, but Camilia is a bit distracted by the suit part. 

“I didn’t actually think you would wear that.” Eda laughs, referring to the Bad Girl Coven T-shirt Camilia _mysteriously_ found in the mail two days after Luz went back to the Isles and has now decided to put on. 

“Seemed fitting.” she replies, grabbing her purse, her lips twitching as her daughter pushes herself into the frame impatiently. 

“Hi Mom!”

“Hi Luz.” she looks at them uncertainly. “Just walk through right?” in all the movies she’s seen, using portals makes the protagonist sick. She dearly hopes this isn’t the case because that would be mortifying. Luz and Eda both move out of the way and she takes a deep breath. Crazy magical world. She’s got this. She’ll be fine. 

Camilia walks through, closing her eyes just in case. She knows she’s arrived the moment short but ferociously strong arms latch onto her. Luz jumps away as quickly as she launched herself at Camilia, opening her arms wide. 

“Ta-da! The Owl House!” she declares with a flourish. Camilia looks around the place, trying to take in the details. Key word: _trying_.

“King fell asleep while we were waiting for Eda to get dressed.” Luz continues immediately, gesturing to the demon snoring on the sofa. “But! The most important part!” she brandishes a few papers like she’s a street magician about to perform a card trick. “Magic!”

“Luz let your mom breathe.” Eda reminds her, as she closes the portal. Luz is disappointed but she does let Camilia take a moment to look around.

Truth be told, the Owl House is not what she expected. Sure there are weird skulls and trinkets adorning the wall, but somehow, even after Luz’s stories she expected more cauldrons bubbling in the corner and less… wait is that a wanted poster? Woah, those are an astonishing number of digits there.

“The police sure wants to catch you.” Camilia murmurs, surprised by the incredibly large sum that is offered for Eda’s capture. Luz did, off-handedly, mention that Eda and the law enforcement here aren’t on the friendliest terms but that did not prepare her for that reward. Or the fact that the wanted poster is hung up in a place of honor.

“On second thoughts Luz, I think it’s time for magic.” Eda reconsiders and Luz perks up, shoving a paper with what must be those glyphs she told her about.

“Okay, the light spell. It’s the first one I learnt. You just activate it like that” she touches the paper which instantly folds itself into a shiny orb of light. “and you can make magic.” she finishes proudly. 

Camilia watches the orb levitate in the air, like a tiny star and for a brief second she has the impulse to touch it, wondering if it’s warm. Her daughter _did that_. Even though she knows Luz is a witch in training and that she has seen Eda perform spells before it’s different, seeing first hand what her daughter can do. It’s magical, for a lack of a better word.

“It’s beautiful.” she tells Luz, meaning it. “Would it – ” work if she did that, Camilia wants to ask. She never has the chance because then a voice screeches, loudly (startling even King awake): 

“You didn’t tell me you had guests!” a bird-tube swivels in through the window that can’t be anyone but the infamous Hooty. Camilia thought Luz was exaggerating but really she wasn’t. That _voice_. That voice is going to haunt her. 

“There was a reason for that Hooty.” Eda says, trying to shoo him out. “Go, you’ll scare away our guest.”

“Hi Luz’s mom!” Hooty shouts (is it a shout? to Camilia all this sounds like screeching) as Eda shuts the window on his face. “Gee, I almost feel unwelcome.” 

“You warned me.” Camilia turns to Luz. “But I wasn’t prepared for that.”

“He takes some getting used to.” Luz agrees.

***

Officially, their first stop is Hexside, though Camilia cannot help but stare at everything on their way there in the meantime. There is a centaur with a face on his abs. And a pixie-like thing that’s mainly teeth. And the pigeon that vomits spiders overhead is suspiciously familiar. 

But what takes the cake is definitely the weird person who takes out one of his (many) eyeballs, _eats it_ and then waves cheerily at Luz who waves back just as enthusiastically.

“You… know him?” Camilia asks, sounding dubious even to her own ears. Luz nods.

“He was one of the people wrongfully imprisoned in the Conformatorium.” she explains and yes, Camilia remembers her vaguely (she is starting to notice a pattern) mentioning breaking out of prison when she first arrived here. “They arrested him for eating his eyeballs but we helped him escape.”

“That was one hell of a jailbreak.” Eda says with a low chuckle, obviously reminiscing about said jailbreak.

There are so many things to unpack there that Camilia doesn’t have the mental energy to process. 

“I see.” she says instead. 

When they reach Hexside, Camilia has to admit that it’s a pleasant looking building all in all. Well, if one excludes the spirit in front of the gates that is pretty much the undead incarnation of the resigned “meh” that is. 

It stares right at Camilia for an uncomfortably long period of time so, not knowing what the protocol here is, she lifts her hand in an awkward wave. The ghost perks up as much as it seems able to (which isn’t that much.)

“You… acknowledge my existence?” it murmurs with wonder.

“Erm…”

“Just roll with it.” Luz instructs, all but shepherding her inside the school. 

Once inside, Luz is excitedly showing her around, telling her what classes she has in each room, 

(“That’s where we have our Bard magic classes. They’re super cool and Skara is a lot nicer to me if Boscha’s not around.”)

pointing out which locker is hers,

(“ **Mija, please tell me that mouth is a decorative thing.** ”

“ **No, it’s not.** ” Luz replies, tickling the locker until it pokes out its massive tongue along with her books. )

and carefully ushering her away from less safe corridors. 

(“They have fixed detention.” Luz explains when she frowns. “You don’t want to see that.”)

She is like an eager tour guide, Camilia notes with a fond smile. When she looks at Eda she sees that the witch finds her daughter’s antics just as endearingly funny as she does. 

When they eventually arrive at Principal Bump’s office, Eda strides into the room before Camilia has a chance to stop her. Principal Bump looks up from his paperwork.

“Ah yes. The Nocedas and…Eda. Do take a seat.” he says. Camilia blinks. She wonders whether she should warn him about the large spider weaving a heart-shaped web in the corner but she assumes he probably knows. 

“It’s fine.” Camilia replies as soon she gathers her wits. “I actually wanted to talk to you privately, if I could.” 

“Very well then.” Bump nods and Eda and Luz leave, though the latter is significantly more reluctant. “I expect you have many questions.”

The principal gives her a rather informative overview of the curriculum and the future prospects of joining a coven. Thankfully, being less enthusiastic about the subject, he does manage to explain things better than Luz did. Even though Camilia still doesn’t understand why witches aren’t allowed to use more than one type of magic. Specialization is a good idea but doesn’t being restricted like that undermine the whole concept?

“Your daughter didn’t agree either.” Bump says, and Camilia can’t decide whether it’s annoyance or amusement coloring his tone. “She has mentioned that she is the first Hexside student to be enrolled in all tracks, yes?”

“She has.” Camilia still can’t get over how casual Luz was about it. She played an integral part in reforming her education and it’s like she isn’t even aware how big that is. But of course she isn’t; she’s Luz. She doesn’t realize the magnitude of what she did because to her it was just doing the right thing, as simple as that. 

“She’s a good student all things considered. I am actually surprised at how well she’s adapted despite her… natural disadvantage.” Bump continues and Camilia nods, a mixture of pride and satisfaction. That’s her Luz alright. “She does cause a fair bit of trouble however. Given who her mentor is I can’t say that is unexpected.” 

Camilia narrows her eyes, suspicious.

“What kind of trouble… exactly?”

***

“Relax kid.” Eda puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “The school only starts compiling an illustrated journal of your misdeeds when you’ve hit at least 20 and at best you’re at 18.” she pauses thoughtfully. “You don’t think they’d count the trouble you caused _before_ enrolling right?”

That doesn’t exactly help her nerves, Luz thinks when she hears a weird noise. A strange pitter-patter of footfalls coming from nearby.

“Did you hear that?” she asks Eda. The witch frowns.

“Hear what?”

“Footfalls.” Luz tries to imitate the sound. Eda’s look of utter bewilderment doesn’t change. 

“I didn’t hear anything. It’s probably someone from the Construction Coven. They still haven’t finished rebuilding all of the school.”

“I’ll check it out. Just in case.” Luz says, determined to make sure no one has snuck in that shouldn’t have. Eda still looks skeptical but she humors her, aware that even though Luz herself knows it’s nothing she has to see for herself that it truly is nothing.

_It’s most likely nothing_ , she reminds herself, turning down a corridor. That’s when she hears it again. From far closer this time. 

“Hello. Do you require assistance?” someone says. Luz whips her head in the direction of the voice and…that’s definitely no one she has never seen before. 

There is a tiny creature on her right. They’re pudgy, and they have a crooked little nose and the strangest pink cotton candy hair Luz has ever seen. They’re also wearing what appears to be a blue ball gown and combat boots and are currently inspecting Luz, their head tilted to one side. 

“What?” Luz asks, so caught up in the strange appearance of the person that she hasn’t processed a single word they have said.

“I am the Goblin. I am here to offer you my assistance.” Eda’s warning rings in her ears and Luz cannot actually believe her bad luck. Seriously. The one person she was supposed to avoid actually finds _her_ instead. This can’t be happening.

“That is erm, very nice of you. But I’m good. Totaaally good. So if you could just leave maybe?” Luz tries for a friendly smile but the Goblin says nothing and continues to watch her with an eerie intensity. She deflates. “Look I just need one normal day on the Boiling Isles while my mom is here, okay? Just one. So could you maybe come back later?” she tells them. “Please?” they nod.

“Very well then.” and then poof, the Goblin is gone. 

“Phew!” Luz slumps in relief. That could have ended messily. She walks back to Eda who is still at the same spot, waiting for her.

“So?” she asks.

“I ran into the Goblin. But it’s okay!” Luz says quickly when Eda is about to open her mouth “I told them to go away.” The witch still eyes her with suspicion.

“And they left? Just like that?”

“I know, right? I was surprised too!” 

Then the door to Principal Bump’s office opens back up, and Camilia walks out. 

“Everything’s fine.” Luz insists “I didn’t make any shady deals with them.” then she turns to her mother who has just rejoined them “So do you want to see the Grudgby field?”

***

Camilia almost takes a step towards the Grudgby field but luckily Luz manages to stop her before she could get _too_ close. 

“That’s not a good idea.” she tells her mom.

“Why not?” Camilia asks. Luz glances around and picks up a leaf. She throws and the poor greenery gets impaled by a shard of ice upon impact. 

“Oh.” is the only thing her mother says in response, then she asks far too casually: “Are you on the team?” 

“No.”

“ **Oh thank god.** ” then Camilia squints at the sudden shade. And yes, there used to be far more sunlight what exactly is going o… Oh. 

“Little human.” the Bat Queen lands near them, her eyes wild and panicked. “I need your help.”

“My help?” “Luz’s help?” Luz and Camilia say at the same time.

“Yes.” the Bat Queen declares. “You are very good at causing and solving problems. I have a problem. You must solve it.”

“Okay?”

“One of my babies, he went missing. We need to find him!”

“I…” Luz glances back at her mother and Eda. She’ll probably be back soon, but she doesn’t want her mom to miss out on anything in the meantime. “Eda could you show Mom around the town?”

“You sure I shouldn’t go with you kid?” Eda asks, obviously thinking that yes, she should. Luz shakes her head.

“It’s fine. What trouble could the little one have gotten himself into anyway? You won’t even notice I’m gone.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am! Okay Bat Queen, lead the way!”

***

The market is upside down, in some cases literally. There are broken vases, ripped up curtains and merchants moaning left and right. Eda doesn’t look fazed. 

“Well, I guess we’ll have to come back here later.” then her eyes narrow. “Uh-oh.” she grabs Camilia and pulls her behind a stall (one that luckily is still intact). There is a masked man in gray that walks past, followed by another. 

“Who are they?” Camilia whispers.

“The guards.” Eda whispers back, peering over the corner. “I don’t think they’re after me, but I’d rather not remind them that they should be.” whatever the witch has seen beyond the tent must not please her, because when she looks back at Camilia she says: “Okay when I say run, we run and find the first place we can duck into, okay?”

That’s… not ideal but it’s not like Camilia wants to get arrested (if her coworkers ever heard her worry about _that_ ) so she doesn’t protest. Another guard passes by and…

“Run!” Eda says and they break out into a sprint. They zig-zag across the annoyed shoppers, the noise of the market drowning out the angry yells of the guards. 

“A cat café?” when she spots the building surprise almost stops Camilia dead in her tracks. Eda takes her hand and drags her further.

“Oh no, that’s worse. Trust me you don’t want to go in there.” an elderly lady walks up to the window and hisses, all sharp teeth and Camilia sees Eda’s point.

***

Finding the Bat Queen’s baby wasn’t that hard.

The elf who had him was running around screaming incomprehensibly about how someone kidnapped a child and put it in his wardrobe. Convincing him that the Bat Queen won’t rip him to shreds for this and convincing the Bat Queen not to rip him to shreds for this was more difficult. 

As the Bat Queen flies away, Luz pats the elf on the shoulder comfortingly. The poor guy still looks all shades of traumatized. 

But as she goes to search for Eda and her mom she finds her friends first, who are hastily picking up meat from the pavement, Amity’s abomination carrying at least an armful of it. 

“Guys, what’s going on?” Luz approaches them, already suspecting that she is not going to like the answer.

“Slitherbeast! Slitherbeast!” Gus answers frantically. And that is not much of an explanation.

“What Gus means to say” Amity says, throwing a rather large slab of meat at her abomination, who nearly drops all his cargo while catching it. “is that someone is trying to lure the Slitherbeast here.”

“WHAT?!” 

“We’re trying to collect the bait before…” there is a howl and Willow pales. “Before that happens.”

“We have to lead him back to the Knee!” Luz declares, a battle plan, and the others nod with determination. 

It takes a lot of catapulting food into the distance and cordoning off alternative paths with greenery to lure the beast back where it belongs, but they do eventually manage it. 

“Why… why would _anyone_ want to lure the Slitherbeast from the Knee?” Luz pants once the monster has settled down to eat merrily, far, far away from populated areas. Her friends share a glance.

“That’s not the only strange thing that’s happened today.” Amity wipes at her brow, exhausted. “Someone left garlic bread all over the market. The pixies went absolutely crazy.”

“They trashed the place up!” Gus nods fervently. 

“We tried to do our best but then we noticed the path of meat.” Willow finishes and Luz decides that the Isles has gone absolutely crazy today. It really cannot get any weirder than this though right? Right? 

***

“Should I be worried?” Camilia says, swirling her drink (whatever it is; a lizard climbed out of it a few seconds ago that – according to Eda – was the flavoring.) They stopped to lay low at a café that opened recently. Eda assured her that no one tried to kidnap her while she was here before, and that the owner is involved in all kinds of illegal activities too so he is unlikely to sell them out to the guards.

“Nah. It’s perfectly safe to drink after the lizard is gone.”

“I meant about Luz.” because despite her assurances Luz still hasn’t returned and Camilia is starting to worry. 

“Honestly? I don’t think so.” Eda replies, though to her credit it appears she has been thinking about it too. “The Bat Queen is among the most dangerous things on the Boiling Isles and she seems fond of Luz, in her own way. They’re probably fine.”

“Probably.” Camilia huffs a small laugh, then shakes her head. If Eda thinks it’s fine, then it’s fine. She’s the expert here. Camilia is going to trust her judgement. 

“So about that rematch you owe me…” Eda subtly shifts a bit closer.

“Do you have something in mind?” Camilia asks, amused. Eda’s eyes have the telltale sparkle of a challenge in them.

“There’s a – ”

“Eda!” a new voice chimes in belonging to… a rather round shaped creature with a large nose. 

“Tiny Nose.” Eda says, sounding a touch annoyed. Camilia purses her lips thoughtfully, something about Tiny Nose striking her as familiar. 

“Did Luz break you out of jail too?” she asks, a shot in the dark. 

“Actually yes!” Tiny Nose beams, before turning her attention back to Eda. “But what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be helping Luz?”

“Helping her with what exactly.” the witch narrows her eyes. Tiny Nose scrunches up her, well, nose. 

“I heard she was fighting the Choosy Hat? Or is that just another lie I’ve been told?” 

“Oh no.” Eda stands up quickly, grabbing her staff. Camilia (after a half-hearted goodbye to Tiny Nose) follows suit, both of them running out of the establishment despite the owner’s outraged protests that they haven’t paid yet. 

“That’s bad isn’t it?” Camilia asks, now _very_ worried.

“That’s really bad. We should ahh” Eda yells in surprise as tendrils of a hand shoot out and yank her away, making her drop her staff in the process. The witch glances upward and her expression turns exasperated. “You again? Can’t you take rejection like a normal person?”

“I have received your letter Owl Lady. I know your outward coldness is merely due to your inability to expression emotion.”

“My inability to do what?” Eda asks, incredulous. “What are you talking about?”

“The letter you sent me.” the strange bulky man in a mask (who must also be a guard of sorts) pulls out a letter. “The letter where you confessed your love.” Eda skims through the text and then bursts out laughing.

“It’s signed with a xoxo and you honestly thought I sent it?” she’s actually shaking with mirth. “Buddy I have more class.”

The guard hasn’t really been paying much attention to Camilia in the first place, allowing her to inch ever closer to Owlbert but Eda’s – apparently latest – rejection enrages him to the point that he doesn’t even glance in Camilia’s direction until she grabs the staff and quickly jumps on it.

“Fly please!” she says and thankfully Owlbert complies. The man growls and tries to catch her with his other spaghetti hand (and even the concept of that is really gross) but thanks to Camilia’s rather awful flying technique he misses. Good to know even he can’t anticipate atrocious V-shaped take-offs.

“There they are! Get them!” the shop owner shouts, flanked by two enormous dogs with multiple heads, like they don’t have enough problems already.

Camilia doesn’t have time for that, not with both Luz and Eda being in danger, so she urges Owlbert to charge, pulls off her purse and swings, hoping for the best. 

She ends up hitting the guard right in the head. He stumbles which is enough for Eda to free her hand for a small spell. She makes a circling motion and vines shoot from the ground, restraining the man and letting her escape. Camilia flies closer and holds out her hand for Eda, so she can climb up and take the wheel, so to speak. 

“I’ll come back to pay you!” Camilia promises the incensed shop owner who stomps his feet angrily as they fly away. 

“You better!”

As they rise higher, Camilia instinctively wraps her arms around Eda’s middle, to steady herself. 

“Today is all kinds of weird and I have a bad feeling I know exactly why.” Eda says “We have to find Luz.”

“Do you know where she could be?”

“I have a suspicion.” Eda inclines her head towards a spot in the forest where there is rather peculiar light-show and a tree that is actually on fire. Yes, that’s probably a good place to start.

There is a beat of silence until Eda adds:

“For the record I did not ever date him.” Camilia laughs at how insulted Eda sounds at even the notion that she would.

“Duly noted.” she replies. 

***

“Amity watch out!” Luz cries, noting with horror that the Choosy Hat has started to chew its way through the abomination that held it captive. She uses her ice glyph just in time to knock the hat off course as it tries to launch itself at her girlfriend. 

“Thanks!” Amity spares a brief second to smile at her.

Willow does her best to grab it with her vines but to no avail; the Choosy Hat is too fast and far too slippery. And even now when they _did_ manage to catch it, it just ate its way to freedom. Gus’ illusions are helpful in dividing the hat’s attention, but they’re still nowhere near to stopping it.

Luz really wishes there was an explanation for how they have managed to run into the Choosy Hat of all things, but they literally just walked down a path and it was _there_. 

“Any ideas?” Luz shouts, hitting the thing with a flaming rock. 

“Maybe one.” Eda’s voice rings out, and the witch unleashes a torrent of flames on the hat. It hisses as it withdraws. Willow sprouts thick vines to imprison it and Luz encases it ice just in case. Maybe it’ll stay there for a bit. Maybe. 

Eda and her mother climb off the staff, surveying the damage. 

“There they are!” a guard yells, running towards them. Eda looks at Luz. Really looks.

“Luz. When you sent the Goblin away. What words did you use _exactly_ ? Because this” she says “this looks like Goblin mayhem to me.”

“I didn’t ask for their help! I only told them to leave…” _because she wanted one normal day on the Boiling Isles_. But then again, normal on the Boiling Isles wouldn’t be normal, would it? So it’s entirely possible that… “Oh.”

“Luz. What did you do?” Amity asks, already concerned. Luz laughs nervously.

“I might have implied that I wanted a normal day on the Boiling Isles while in the presence of the Goblin. Who might have taken it as a request.”

The lone guard finally reaches them. Eda makes him trip with a single spell, tying his shoelaces together. 

“Freeze! You are all under arrest!” he cries from the ground, obviously taking his job very seriously. Camilia watches him with a bewildered expression, but Eda continues on like nothing happened.

“Kid, if you could tell the Goblin that your request has been ‘fulfilled’ that would be great.”

“How do I do that?” Luz asks, and they all stare at her, obviously having no clue either. 

“Maybe ask them to come nicely?” Gus suggests. That’s the only idea they have so Luz goes with it.

“Uhh Goblin? Could you maybe come here? Please?”

Luz didn’t expect that to work to be honest, but the Goblin appears right next to her without a sound. She jumps in surprise (and she still reacts better than the guard who starts to crawl away as soon as he sees them)

“Do you require further assistance?” they ask. All of them – including the guard – cry “no” at the same time, vehemently. They blink, tilt their head, and pout. “Did I do a bad job?”

And what can she even say to that? The Boiling Isles might as well be up in flames and that’s about as far as you can be from a good job, but they look like a kicked puppy right now. Luz doesn’t have the heart to tell them that.

“No, no sweetie.” Camilia says gently, stepping forward. “You did a wonderful job.”

“I did?” the Goblin beams, proud and hopeful.

“Yes. We just called to let you know that you can stop now. You already helped Luz.”

“But she asked for a full-day.” the Goblin frowns in confusion. Camilia glances at Luz, a “really?” clearly written in her eyes. Luz smiles, though it’s strained. It was an accident!

“Then you should be proud!” her mother tries again. “You achieved your goal in less time than that.”

“Yes.” Luz jumps in. “You did a really good job. Thank you.”

“I did, didn’t I? I did good! I helped!” the Goblin cheers, doing a little dance before hugging Camilia and disappearing with a final “thank you!”

They all watch them leave, perplexed and a little confused about what happened. Luz would say it was too easy but in the ensuing silence she can clearly hear the soft growls of the Choosy Hat. So no. After everything they earned the easy.

“Sorry.” Luz murmurs sheepishly before anyone can say anything. Amity inches closer to her and takes her hand supportively, apparently hearing the underlying worry and guilt in her voice. If Luz wasn’t already pretty sure she was head over heels for her girlfriend she would be now.

“So…” Camilia says eventually. “Is this Boiling Isles normal then?”

“More or less. Mostly less.” Eda replies. “I gotta say the Goblin mayhem is less fun when it’s happening to you.” Camilia hums, looking at Luz, her face unreadable. 

“Should I expect something like this tomorrow?” 

“Maybe?” Luz answers carefully. Camilia nods with a sigh.

“Alright. Eda, we need to go back and pay for our drinks and then could you drop me off at home? Because if I’m going to be running all day I need more comfortable shoes.”

***

Camilia sits at the windowsill, looking at out the stars from the Owl House. Luz is already knocked out cold, which, after she has told Camilia everything that happened today, isn’t all that surprising. Her daughter did emphasize that she was going to take her on an actual tour of the Isles tomorrow (except for the Knee because she doesn’t want to see the Slitherbeast in the near future). However, Camilia is quite certain that she has gotten to know the Boiling Isles pretty well over the course of the day and also that there is a very small chance that tomorrow would go over without a hitch. But Luz doesn’t need to know that.

“Is this seat taken?” Eda appears with two mugs of hot cocoa, sitting down across from her. Camilia smiles. 

“I see Luz has already exposed my weaknesses.” 

“She gave me a few tips.” Eda hands a cup over to Camilia, who takes a sip experimentally. It’s normal, plain hot cocoa, without scaly things using it as a Jacuzzi. It’s heavenly and just what she needs after a stressful day.

“So about that rematch you keep mentioning...” Camilia reminds her. “You said you had an idea?”

“There’s a carnival coming to the Isles. With lots and lots of carnival games.” Eda smirks with a hint of mischief dancing across her features. Camilia’s lips twitch.

“You intend to beat me at all of them I take it?”

“You bet. So are you in?”

“It’s a date.” Camilia answers, far-too-innocently and Eda chokes on her cocoa. 

“You’re an evil, evil woman Camilia Noceda.”

The Boiling Isles may be all kinds of weird and dangerous and exhausting. But as Camilia catches herself already mentally trying to balance her workload so she can slip back here again, she has to admit, at least privately, that it’s not all bad. 

She takes a sip of her cocoa, smiling over the rim.

Maybe it’s not bad at all.


End file.
